GOP Act to Favor Environment Over People

Among the Obama-era protections that the Trump administration and Republican-led Congress are working over with an eye towards dismantling is the Dodd-Frank Act.

Among the Obama-era protections that the Trump administration and Republican-led Congress are working over with an eye towards dismantling is the Dodd-Frank Act.

This law was put in place after the 2007-2008 financial meltdown in order to address the sort of problems that led to the crisis. The Dodd-Frank Act provided for greater oversight of “too big to fail” banks that engaged in risky business practices that endangered the economy. It enabled the government to step in and wind down large, failing banks in an orderly way so as not to create or worsen a spreading financial panic. Another important part of the Dodd-Frank Act was the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which looked out for the interests of American families by regulating scammy and deceptive lending practices like payday loans.

House Republicans are taking aim at these important provisions by introducing the “Financial Choice Act,” which would repeal the Dodd-Frank Act. Just like so many warm and fuzzy names for initiatives that are anything but, the Choice Act is a giveaway to Big Finance. Here, “CHOICE” is an acronym for “Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs.” The “hopey changey stuff” held out by the GOP in the Choice Act is the opportunity to get burned again. It helps the big banks escape regulation and re-opens the door to the same shady practices (like shadow banking and risky derivatives) that caused the Great Recession, and which the Dodd-Frank Act cleaned up.

Trump and his GOP enablers give the Financial Choice Act a big thumbs-up. The Financial Choice Act, a repeal of the Dodd-Frank Act, is a giveaway to Wall Street that would pave the way for another Great Recession like the one that forced many Americans out of their homes and cost them their jobs. Photo by Gage Skidmore, via Flickr. (CC BY-SA 2.0)

While Congress and the President may have a kind of collective amnesia regarding the painful effects of the Great Recession on American families, the rest of us sure don’t. There’s one effect of the financial meltdown, however, that may have escaped widespread notice, and which helped almost every living creature on the planet.

The economic downturn of 2007-2008 caused people to spend less money and buy fewer things out of fear, desperation, and unemployment. No matter the reason, though, hitting the economy on the head with a brick reduced carbon emissions in the United States by 11% between 2007 and 2013. While 17% of the reduction between 2007-2009 can be attributed to the widespread switch from burning coal to natural gas and renewables for electricity, the rest came from a decline in the collective ability of Americans to buy and consume goods and services. Every American that had to put off having or increasing a family because they couldn’t afford a child is one more way the riskiness of Wall Street, filtered through the suffering of middle class and poor Americans, bought everyone a little more time with a stable and livable climate.

About Dawn Allen

Dawn Allen is a freelance writer and editor who is passionate about sustainability, political economy, gardening, traditional craftwork, and simple living. She and her husband are currently renovating a rural homestead in southeastern Michigan.

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